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Mindfulness and Community: Why Going Solo Isn't Enough
MIndful Petals
September 12, 2024
In recent years, mindfulness has become a popular wellness tool, with practices like meditation and yoga becoming a part of daily life for many. While it’s often seen as a personal journey toward better mental and emotional health, new research from the Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy suggests we may be missing something crucial: community. The study points out that mindfulness isn’t just about personal growth, but also about connecting with others on a deeper, spiritual level.
Photo by Helena Lopes on Unsplash
The Changing Face of Mindfulness
In Western culture, mindfulness is often framed as an individual practice, helping people manage stress, improve focus, and find inner peace. But in doing so, we may have lost some of its original intent. In its Eastern roots, mindfulness wasn’t just about personal well-being — it was about understanding our place in the world and how we connect with others. This sense of community and shared spirituality was a central part of the practice, something that’s often overlooked today.
The shift towards an individual-centered approach has its benefits, but it can also make mindfulness feel like just another self-help strategy, disconnected from its original purpose of fostering harmony within communities.
Reconnecting with Collective Mindfulness
Dr. Liz Marks, one of the study’s authors, acknowledges that mindfulness has real value in helping people navigate life’s stresses. However, she also stresses the importance of broadening our perspective. Instead of seeing mindfulness as just another tool for personal improvement, Marks suggests using it to build stronger connections — with nature, with others, and with society as a whole.
This shift can help us reconnect with the world around us. By seeing mindfulness as a way to engage with broader social issues, like environmental challenges or inequality, we can transform it from a personal wellness routine into something that fosters compassion and collective action.
The Power of Community-Based Mindfulness
One of the key takeaways from the study is that mindfulness, when practiced with a community focus, can be a powerful force for change. The researchers argue that by encouraging individuals to look beyond their own struggles and engage with larger societal challenges, mindfulness can help us stay grounded while working toward a better world.
Whether it’s in the face of climate change, economic instability, or social injustice, mindfulness rooted in community can inspire compassion not just for ourselves but for others and the planet.
How to Practice Mindfulness with a Community Focus
So how can we bring this community-minded approach to our mindfulness practice? The study offers some simple suggestions. Start small by being more present in your interactions with others, practicing kindness and patience in everyday situations. You can also try loving-kindness meditation, which focuses on sending positive energy not just to yourself but to others as well.
By cultivating curiosity and compassion in our daily lives, mindfulness can become more than a personal wellness tool — it can be a way to make the world a little more connected and compassionate.
Mindfulness for the Greater Good
There’s nothing wrong with using mindfulness for personal growth. But as this study reminds us, there’s also an opportunity to use mindfulness to benefit the broader community. By returning to its roots and focusing on connection, spirituality, and compassion, mindfulness can help address not only personal challenges but global ones too.
This research invites us to rethink how we approach mindfulness, making it a practice that benefits not just ourselves, but the world around us.